Wow last time i made beer was 20 years ago , how times have changed .Much for the better. Used to not be allowed to still have any sanitizer anywhere near the beer , or fermenting process . may just invest in some kit and start again (the mrs raises her eyebrows ). So much easier .
Was just thinking the other day how few good videos there are on packaging (other than kegging- but even those are fairly basic). And it's the bit of the process that is most under appreciated. So thanks for helping to plug the gap!
Good timing for me as I’m currently borrowing a Blichmann Beer gun and was looking at buying my own, with Blichmann out of stock, this is a good alternative.
Very enlightening thankyou. Could you do a video on how to calibrate brewzilla temp sensor and the Bluetooth thermometer so they read the same. As far as I can see on the net nobody has done this. Be great if you could do that. Cheers
Great video as always guys. I use one of your drip trays when filling from my bottle gun to capture any over flow. Is there any beer and gas line that you supply that is more flexible that the lines you were using in the video?
Well that's me sold got a keg of larger that needs bottling and a plastic keg of belgian triple that needs to be bottled on payday going to order me one of these as well as the lines and fittings that are needed with it. Grate job on the vid guys 👍🏻👍🏻.
Great video. I know you don't sell it but I'd love to see a video on what sort of co2 cylinders are needed, he best to source etc. I'd also be really interested to understand what the cost implications of using co2 to carbonate and transfer are, i.e the actual cost per pint rather than the initial outlay for equipment
You would need to add to the bottles if you didn't want to open up the FV however if you have a pressurised FV then we would suggest carbonating the beer in the FV, either through natural carbonation under pressure or by adding your priming sugar to the FV and allowing the carbonation to take place in their.
It’s possible with a unitank as they have detachable collection vessels that you can gas flush while affixed.other option is a hop drop system if you have a Fermzilla or or stainless unitank
Great video, many thanks. I know you used 10PSI for sanitising the kit before use, but do you drop the pressure for bottling? Finally found a use for my defunct demijohn 😂 Could do with a video on forced carbonation. Specifically calculating CO2 setting to use if already pressure fermented?
If this was in response to my request on a bottling video- if so many thanks it answered my questions I presume pressurising the fermzilla before bottling does away with any requirement to add any carbonation drops
Yes it was!!! So it will depend, if you have added pressure for long enough to force carbonate the beer then yes it does do away with that requirement! Glad you enjoyed the video!
Great video, are there any plans on stocking some of the alternatives to the iTap that I have seen popping up from other suppliers? Don’t know if any have made it to the uk yet…
@@davec4955 agreed I love mine but I would like to have an option for an equivalent replacement as its going to be a problem if I need replacement parts anytime soon
I have both beergun and itap. I found beergun easier to use . It has a very simple design and is likely highly reliable. I love this beergun. A must have
If you use this system to bottle un-carbonated beer,I assume that you would add some sugar to the bottle before adding the beer. Would you still flush with Co2 or skup that stage for the beer to naturally carbonate off the sugar?
Yes you will need to add some sugar to allow for the secondary fermentation, you can still flush with the co2, just perhaps for not as long. I would still do this for beers that are heavily hopped to prevent the hops being oxidised
If you're filling with carbonated product then no need to condition however we would still suggest leaving them to stand for 24-48 hours without jostling as the caps generally have the Oxygen scavenging seals and need a little time to remove any oxygen that might have been caught in the neck of the bottle before capping.
A great video which clearly explains how to use what can be a tricky bit of kit when you first get it. Rob looks incredibly fresh. Did he shave especially for this video?
I usually use an in line filter “beer bouncer “ brand which would be on fitted between fermzilla along the beer line and the beer gun, how would you purge that. Using sanitizer would stay longer in the filter holder. Would be better to purge with co2. Are there screw in connectors (instead of the screw in barbed connectors) so you can clip on a red connector gas line either side one to purge and then one to allow o2 out. Then just clip the beer line on using yellow connectors , if that makes sense ?
Hey! I think I get what you’re saying. The way to purge would be to flush with sanitiser first from a keg that’s already been purged with CO2 until the sanitizer is all gone and then you’re blowing the CO2 from the keg through the lines, and filter. Hope this helps!
There’s a real risk of creating bottle bombs with this. Already carbonated beer having a further food source for the yeast added could result in over carbonation and adding too much pressure to the bottles
If you are using oxygen scavenging caps, are they not already “activated” when soaked in sanitizer? Are you better using them straight out of the packet (sterile?)
Hey! The sanitiser is what activates them, ideally you don't want to jostle the bottle after capping and as such exposing the beer inside to the air/oxygen in the bottle next.
Yes, but you would really want gravity to feed the beer gun as you might loose a lot of CO2 if you continually have the gas bottle feeding the top of the FV
'. . we're also using crown caps that have the oxygen scrubbing barrier on them.' I just wanted to ask what crown caps these are, or is the sanitiser you're using doing the oxygen scrubbing? Or am I missing something? Great video - as always. I have the beer gun already but haven't used it yet - looking to do so in about two weeks when my current brew has finished. :)
The crown caps do the oxygen scrubbing but the film barrier needs to be activated by being wetted. The crown caps we use are our own ones which we stock
Drips and surface residue are fine, anymore than that really you don't want. You can invert the bottles on a rack if you wish to drain more of the residual sanitiser out
You mentioned that you had the Fermzilla pressurized to 20 psi. I presume to carbonate the beer. How long would is needed? And then once bottled, it’s ready to drink?
It will depend on the level of carbonation you require but loosely speaking 4-5 days at 20PSi will do you well. As soon as it's bottled yes you can drink, although we suggest leaving for a little so settle down...if you can wait 😉
I noticed you're using version 1 of the Blichmann Beer gun. The version 2 doesn't have the grey connector for the beer line with it. Where did you get one from?
Another great video! Thank you! I finally got the fermzilla the back end of last year, kegged 19L of a 23L brew and suddenly though "How am I going to get this in to bottles?" I ended up just going the old fashion auto siphon route, assuming that any oxygen introduced would be sorted by the bottle conditioning (second fermentation), is this not the case? I have since thought about using the NUKATAP Counter Pressure Bottle Filler that I already have to bottle from my taps, I assume with the right connections this could work as well as the gun you're demonstrating here right?
Glad you enjoyed the video. It depends on the beer style really, if you're doing anything hoppy or very pale lager you might end up with dulled beer at the end. The counter pressure filler would indeed work well with this set up too, rather than the beer gun
@@themaltmiller8438 I would like to report back that after trying the Nukatap CP Filler to try and bottle the remenance of my brew, I wouldn't recommend it. The crucial, and obvious, element I forgot was the simple ability to stop and start the flow of beer. Under normal use, this is done by the tap I'm bottling from, but from the FermZilla, there is no easy option to stop and start flow. I've got a beer gun arriving this week 🙂
You should be fine to carbonate appropriately before bottling. Again, it takes a bit of trial and error to start with but after a few batches you’ll have it nailed down
Yes that may be the case but folks might have a mini reg or use the residual pressure from the vessel. It might be they invest a little bit at a time to build up to the full dispense system and this is could be part of the journey 👍🏻
so basically if you don't have keg equipment fermzilla is useless, you always need gass cillinders. thank you you saved me a lot of trouble, wont be buying this. i thought you could get the beer in another container to add sugger for carbonation (oxigen isnt a big problem if you do it that way) but you need gass to force it out instead of gravity.
You can syphon the finished beer out or attach a beer line to the bottom of the collection vessel but either way you're making a compromise and loosing a lot of the benefits of the system. One thing to note, you can naturally carbonate the beer during fermentation with these kind of fermenters by using a spunding valve. This forces the CO2 from the fermentation to be absorbed into the beer, thus eliminating the need to carbonate using sugar
Wow last time i made beer was 20 years ago , how times have changed .Much for the better.
Used to not be allowed to still have any sanitizer anywhere near the beer , or fermenting process . may just invest in some kit and start again (the mrs raises her eyebrows ).
So much easier .
I filled up cans with the beer gun as well before moving on to a DuoFiller
Was just thinking the other day how few good videos there are on packaging (other than kegging- but even those are fairly basic). And it's the bit of the process that is most under appreciated. So thanks for helping to plug the gap!
Glad you enjoyed it, Anthony! Hope you're well
Another great demo, the beer gun is a great piece of kit.
Great video, my first venture using this method tomorrow 👍🏻
I'm glad you got the crown capper to work! I've had to throw mine away because it just shattered the bottles.
Sorry to hear that!
Good timing for me as I’m currently borrowing a Blichmann Beer gun and was looking at buying my own, with Blichmann out of stock, this is a good alternative.
Very enlightening thankyou.
Could you do a video on how to calibrate brewzilla temp sensor and the Bluetooth thermometer so they read the same. As far as I can see on the net nobody has done this. Be great if you could do that. Cheers
Great suggestion! We will look into this
Great video as always guys. I use one of your drip trays when filling from my bottle gun to capture any over flow. Is there any beer and gas line that you supply that is more flexible that the lines you were using in the video?
No, however the 3/16 line can handle both gas and beer and due to how thin it is means its more flexible but you do trade off against the flow rate
Well that's me sold got a keg of larger that needs bottling and a plastic keg of belgian triple that needs to be bottled on payday going to order me one of these as well as the lines and fittings that are needed with it. Grate job on the vid guys 👍🏻👍🏻.
Great video. I know you don't sell it but I'd love to see a video on what sort of co2 cylinders are needed, he best to source etc. I'd also be really interested to understand what the cost implications of using co2 to carbonate and transfer are, i.e the actual cost per pint rather than the initial outlay for equipment
Ah just found one from a few years back 😂 ruclips.net/video/C-Ktyhiv9FY/видео.htmlsi=n8v_zRfWmcxsXgek
Great suggestion!
Just out of curiosity how do you add the priming sugar(Bulk Priming) and the bottling yeast without opening the fermenter?
You would need to add to the bottles if you didn't want to open up the FV however if you have a pressurised FV then we would suggest carbonating the beer in the FV, either through natural carbonation under pressure or by adding your priming sugar to the FV and allowing the carbonation to take place in their.
It’s possible with a unitank as they have detachable collection vessels that you can gas flush while affixed.other option is a hop drop system if you have a Fermzilla or or stainless unitank
Great video, many thanks. I know you used 10PSI for sanitising the kit before use, but do you drop the pressure for bottling?
Finally found a use for my defunct demijohn 😂
Could do with a video on forced carbonation. Specifically calculating CO2 setting to use if already pressure fermented?
Thanks for doing this video. I've learned a lot from you guys over the past few days.
Our pleasure! Glad you've learnt from us!
If this was in response to my request on a bottling video- if so many thanks it answered my questions
I presume pressurising the fermzilla before bottling does away with any requirement to add any carbonation drops
Yes it was!!! So it will depend, if you have added pressure for long enough to force carbonate the beer then yes it does do away with that requirement! Glad you enjoyed the video!
How to cool the wort down fast when the source water is much higher than the desired target temperature?
Shout out from down Under Australia. Great little video guys, much appreciated. 🤙🍻🇦🇺
Great video, are there any plans on stocking some of the alternatives to the iTap that I have seen popping up from other suppliers? Don’t know if any have made it to the uk yet…
I got Boel itap before the Russian invasion, a great piece of kit !
@@davec4955 agreed I love mine but I would like to have an option for an equivalent replacement as its going to be a problem if I need replacement parts anytime soon
I'll let you know!!
I have both beergun and itap. I found beergun easier to use . It has a very simple design and is likely highly reliable. I love this beergun. A must have
thanks a ton.
Awesome video and so well presented!!!!
If you use this system to bottle un-carbonated beer,I assume that you would add some sugar to the bottle before adding the beer. Would you still flush with Co2 or skup that stage for the beer to naturally carbonate off the sugar?
Yes you will need to add some sugar to allow for the secondary fermentation, you can still flush with the co2, just perhaps for not as long. I would still do this for beers that are heavily hopped to prevent the hops being oxidised
Something else to add to the wish list 😂 great informative vlog as always gents 👍
Glad you enjoyed it
Very nice demonstration. Coasting this gun to itab (counter pressure ) what are advantages or disadvantages?
The big benefit of counter pressure is the benefit of having the balanced pressure to keep fobbing in check even more efficiently
Do you still have to condition the beer in the bottles or you can drink after cool it down?
If you're filling with carbonated product then no need to condition however we would still suggest leaving them to stand for 24-48 hours without jostling as the caps generally have the Oxygen scavenging seals and need a little time to remove any oxygen that might have been caught in the neck of the bottle before capping.
A great video which clearly explains how to use what can be a tricky bit of kit when you first get it.
Rob looks incredibly fresh. Did he shave especially for this video?
He did, yes!! Baby faced!!
I usually use an in line filter “beer bouncer “ brand which would be on fitted between fermzilla along the beer line and the beer gun, how would you purge that. Using sanitizer would stay longer in the filter holder. Would be better to purge with co2. Are there screw in connectors (instead of the screw in barbed connectors) so you can clip on a red connector gas line either side one to purge and then one to allow o2 out. Then just clip the beer line on using yellow connectors , if that makes sense ?
Hey! I think I get what you’re saying. The way to purge would be to flush with sanitiser first from a keg that’s already been purged with CO2 until the sanitizer is all gone and then you’re blowing the CO2 from the keg through the lines, and filter. Hope this helps!
Can you add carbonation drops to the bottles for extra fizzy beer
There’s a real risk of creating bottle bombs with this. Already carbonated beer having a further food source for the yeast added could result in over carbonation and adding too much pressure to the bottles
I guess you'd add priming sugar to the fermzilla somehow or a carb drop in the bottle?
If you are packing un-carbonated beer, yes
If you are using oxygen scavenging caps, are they not already “activated” when soaked in sanitizer? Are you better using them straight out of the packet (sterile?)
Hey! The sanitiser is what activates them, ideally you don't want to jostle the bottle after capping and as such exposing the beer inside to the air/oxygen in the bottle next.
I have the thermowell and the chilling coil. But I worry they leak a bit. Might be too many things going through the lid. Have you tried those at all?
Not yet as we don't have them, but it's on our next delivery from Kegland. Can't wait to have a play with them together!
How to coming up, how to read the Rapt Pill graph using a phone or an iPad?:-)
Well add it to the list 😉
Is it possible to use this transfer kit with the GF Conical and the MM pressure transfer kit?
Yes, but you would really want gravity to feed the beer gun as you might loose a lot of CO2 if you continually have the gas bottle feeding the top of the FV
'. . we're also using crown caps that have the oxygen scrubbing barrier on them.'
I just wanted to ask what crown caps these are, or is the sanitiser you're using doing the oxygen scrubbing? Or am I missing something?
Great video - as always. I have the beer gun already but haven't used it yet - looking to do so in about two weeks when my current brew has finished. :)
The crown caps do the oxygen scrubbing but the film barrier needs to be activated by being wetted. The crown caps we use are our own ones which we stock
How much residual sanitiser can you leave in the bottle before you affect the taste of your bottled beer?
Drips and surface residue are fine, anymore than that really you don't want. You can invert the bottles on a rack if you wish to drain more of the residual sanitiser out
You mentioned that you had the Fermzilla pressurized to 20 psi. I presume to carbonate the beer. How long would is needed? And then once bottled, it’s ready to drink?
It will depend on the level of carbonation you require but loosely speaking 4-5 days at 20PSi will do you well. As soon as it's bottled yes you can drink, although we suggest leaving for a little so settle down...if you can wait 😉
I noticed you're using version 1 of the Blichmann Beer gun. The version 2 doesn't have the grey connector for the beer line with it. Where did you get one from?
It's not a Blichmann one, it's the kegland one - www.themaltmiller.co.uk/product/duotight-bottle-filler-beer-gun-kit/?v=79cba1185463
Another great video! Thank you! I finally got the fermzilla the back end of last year, kegged 19L of a 23L brew and suddenly though "How am I going to get this in to bottles?" I ended up just going the old fashion auto siphon route, assuming that any oxygen introduced would be sorted by the bottle conditioning (second fermentation), is this not the case? I have since thought about using the NUKATAP Counter Pressure Bottle Filler that I already have to bottle from my taps, I assume with the right connections this could work as well as the gun you're demonstrating here right?
Glad you enjoyed the video. It depends on the beer style really, if you're doing anything hoppy or very pale lager you might end up with dulled beer at the end. The counter pressure filler would indeed work well with this set up too, rather than the beer gun
@@themaltmiller8438 I would like to report back that after trying the Nukatap CP Filler to try and bottle the remenance of my brew, I wouldn't recommend it. The crucial, and obvious, element I forgot was the simple ability to stop and start the flow of beer. Under normal use, this is done by the tap I'm bottling from, but from the FermZilla, there is no easy option to stop and start flow. I've got a beer gun arriving this week 🙂
@@neilholder6337google bottling using a carbonation cap, it does work. You unclip from the bottle to stop the flow
Do you over carbonate the beer before bottling to allow for some CO2 loss during transfer or is normal level of carbonation ok?
You should be fine to carbonate appropriately before bottling. Again, it takes a bit of trial and error to start with but after a few batches you’ll have it nailed down
Are you guys in a hard water area? You have cloudy sanitiser, have you checked the ph?
I had this problem in London
I'm in a very soft water area and my stock solution of sanitiser always goes cloudy. Curiously it clears after storing in the dark???
If you haven’t started dispensing eg kegging, it will be unlikely you’ll have a c02 bottle laying around.
Yes that may be the case but folks might have a mini reg or use the residual pressure from the vessel. It might be they invest a little bit at a time to build up to the full dispense system and this is could be part of the journey 👍🏻
Would be a good time to invest in one then.
You may have a Sodastream type cylinder around. Not as cost effective but it works
I thought oxygen scrubbing bottle caps were meant to be kept dry before using them….
They need to be wetted to activate so a quick dunk in sanitiser before calling is perfect
Looks like you are not sanitising the gas tube in the gun using this method. You probably need to lie in a bowl.
You can do this, yes. however no liquid is coming into contact with the gas line
so basically if you don't have keg equipment fermzilla is useless, you always need gass cillinders. thank you you saved me a lot of trouble, wont be buying this. i thought you could get the beer in another container to add sugger for carbonation (oxigen isnt a big problem if you do it that way) but you need gass to force it out instead of gravity.
You can syphon the finished beer out or attach a beer line to the bottom of the collection vessel but either way you're making a compromise and loosing a lot of the benefits of the system. One thing to note, you can naturally carbonate the beer during fermentation with these kind of fermenters by using a spunding valve. This forces the CO2 from the fermentation to be absorbed into the beer, thus eliminating the need to carbonate using sugar